created, and provision made that a duplicate of their laws should be transmitted, within five years, to the king in council; any of which that were found repugnant to those of England, or inconsistent with the authority of the crown, might be declared void in six months. This charter conveyed nearly the same powers and privileges with that of Maryland, but recognised the right of parliament to tax the colony.

Penn soon commenced the settlement of Pennsylvania, and immediately asserted a claim to a part of the territory which had been considered by lord Baltimore as within the bounds of Maryland. This produced a controversy between the two proprietors, productive of considerable inconvenience and irritation to both.

In April 1682, he published a frame of government for Pennsylvania.* The chief intention of this instrument was declared to be," for the support of power in reverence with the people, and to secure the people from the abuse of power; that they may be free by their just obedience, and the magistrates honourable for their just administration: for liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery." To carry this intention into effect it was ordained, that the assembly should consist, first of the whole body of freemen, afterwards of two hundred, and never of more than five hundred persons. A provincial council was established, consisting of seventy-two members, to be chosen

See Note, No. IV. at the end of the volume.

by the freemen, a third of whom annually went out of office, and were replaced by others chosen in the same manner. After the expiration of the first seven years, an interval of one year was required before any person going out of the council could be re-elected. The governor, possessed of three votes, presided in this council, which was invested with the executive power, and with an authority to prepare bills to be laid before the assembly, which bills were to be published and affixed in the most noted places, thirty days before the meeting of the legislature.

This frame of government, after many fruitless attempts to amend it, was at length laid aside as inapplicable to the condition of the colony, and a more simple form was adopted, resembling in its principal features those established in the other provinces, which remained until the proprietary government itself was dissolved.

In August 1682, Penn, after long solicitation, obtained from the duke of York a conveyance of the town of Newcastle, with the territory twelve miles around it, and that tract of land extending from thence southward on the Delaware to cape Henlopen. Soon after this grant was issued, he embarked for America, accompanied by about two thousand emigrants, and, in the October following, landed on the banks of the Delaware. In addition to the colonists sent out by himself, he found on his arrival several small settlements, amounting to about three thousand persons, Swedes, Dutch, Finlanders, and English. He Ff

VOL. I.

cultivated with care the good will of the natives; and purchased from them, at a satisfactory price, such lands as were necessary for the present use of the colony. At this time the foundation of Philadelphia was laid, which, we are assured, contained within twelve months from its commencement, near one hundred houses. An assembly was called, which, instead of being composed of all the freemen according to the frame of government, was, at the request of the people themselves, constituted of their representatives. Many wise and salutary laws were enacted, among which was one annexing the territories (for so was the late purchase fróm the duke of York denominated) to the province, and extending to the former all the privileges of the latter. Universal freedom in religion was established, and every foreigner who promised allegiance to the king, and obedience to the proprietor, was declared a freeman.1

Extremely anxious to extend his limits to the Chesapeak, Penn soon after his arrival met lord Baltimore in Maryland, for the purpose of ad. justing their boundaries. The patent of that nobleman calls for the fortieth degree of north latitude, and he proposed to determine, by actual observation, where that degree intersected the Delaware. Penn, on the other hand, insisted on finding the fortieth degree by mensuration from the capes of Virginia, the true situation of which had been already ascertained. Each adhering

1 Chalmer....History of Pennsylvania.

firmly to his own proposition, no agreement could be concluded between them. The contest was referred to the committee of plantations, who, after the crown had descended on James, decided that the peninsula between the bays of Chesapeak, and of the Delaware, should be divided into two equal parts by a line drawn from the latitude of cape Henlopen to the 40th degree, and adjudged that the land lying from that line towards the Delaware should belong to his majesty, and the other moiety to lord Baltimore. This adjudication was ordered to be immediately executed.

At

Pennsylvania was slow in acknowledging the prince and princess of Orange. The government continued to be administered in the name of James, for some time after the abdication of the crown by that monarch was known. length, however, William and Mary were proclaimed; and Penn had the address to obviate the unfavourable impressions at first made on them, by this delay in recognising their authority.

CHAPTER VII.

New charter of Massachussetts....Execution of Leisler.... War with France....Schenectady destroyed....Expedition against Port Royal....And against Quebec...Acadié recovered by France, and Pemaquid taken.... Attempt on St. Johns....Peace... Affairs of New York....Of Virginia.. .Disputes between England and France about the boundaries of their American colonies.... Recommencement of hostilities with France....Quotas of men required from the respective colonies....Treaty of neutrality between the French and Five Nations....Expedition against Port Royal fails.... Incursion into Massachussetts ...Plan for invasion of Canada....Port Royal taken....Expedition against Quebec.... Treaty of Utrecht....Affairs of Carolina....Expedition against St. Augustine....Attempt to establish the episcopal church in Carolina....That colony invaded....Bills of credit issued ....Legislature continues itself....Massacre in North Carolina by the Indians.... Tuscaroras defeated....Scheme of a bank....Contests of the legislature of New York with lord Cornbury....Expedition against Montreal....Adjustment of boundary line between Massachussetts and Connecticut.

THE revolution which placed the prince and princess of Orange on the throne revived in Massachussetts the hope of recovering that charter, to which the people were devoted, because they judged of its merits, rather from the practice which had prevailed under it, than from its letter. Elections were held by authority of the temporary government, and the representatives, assembled at Boston in June 1689, immediately requested the council to take upon themselves, until orders should be received from England, the powers and authority vested in them by the charter. This